President Trump’s Sunday night rebuke of Pope Leo has sparked an international reaction, with senior English clergymen rallying around the Holy Father.

The 47th president of the United States took to his social media platform Truth Social on Sunday evening to launch a 300-word tirade against the first Pope from the United States.

The president said that the pontiff was “WEAK on crime, and terrible for foreign policy.” In reference to Leo’s continued calls for peace, he said: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela … And I don’t want a Pope who criticises the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected … to do.”

Responding to the criticism, Archbishop John Wilson, archbishop of Southwark, told the Herald: “Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, is showing the world that in the face of war, God demands peace. As Pope Leo has made clear, we cannot stand by and allow the message of the Gospel to be abused.”

The 57-year-old archbishop, who welcomed more than 500 adult converts in his diocese this Easter, continued: “As bishops, we are not politicians, nor statesmen, nor do we pretend to have all the answers. But as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, we know that each of us is called to be a beacon of His peace. We know that in the face of war, where so many innocent lives will be lost, we must be clear that God demands peace.”

Archbishop John Sherrington, archbishop of Liverpool, voiced a similar defence of the Pope, stating: “Pope Leo has again spoken the truth of the Gospel that we must always seek an end to war and build peace by negotiation and mutual dialogue.”

The bishop for life issues in England and Wales continued: “Such a pathway is always tortuous and difficult. It requires that we listen to the voice of each person, recognise their dignity and respond with words of love and justice, and never in anger. The beatitude ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ calls for commitment and patience.”

“Please join me in praying for peace and for Pope Leo XIV. May we all be as courageous as our Holy Father in proclaiming the truth that God demands peace.”

Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, not a bishop but one of England’s most senior churchmen, addressed the controversial image posted by the president which appears to show him as Jesus. Speaking on the BBC, the 80-year-old Dominican stopped short of calling the image blasphemous, saying that would “imply an attack on Christianity, which I don’t think President Trump intended”, but added that anyone who could think they have the right to be Jesus is “quite frankly absurd.”

Responding to Trump’s defence of the image, in which he suggested he intended to be understood as a doctor rather than Jesus, Cardinal Radcliffe said: “I’ve met many doctors in my life and none of them have glowed.”